[SOLVED] PC may be done. Need help!

Jun 18, 2020
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Hey all,

I’m feeling pretty defeated after doing everything I can to try and get my pc running again. Here’s the story

I got a new ekwb cpu cooler today and went to change it out, unfortunately I don’t have an efficient draining system so not all the liquid gets drained when I have to change something and when I went to remove one of my cpu soft tubes, the other end of the soft tube that was supposed to be secured came loose and liquid began leaking out from that spot pretty excessively. I did everything I could to clean and dry up as much of it as I could. It got on top of my psu in a small puddle but the puddle didn’t look like it flowed over into any ports. It also got within the psi’s wires. Again I couldn’t really see it having gone into the ports but I can’t rule it out that it didn’t because the liquid got fairly close to the them. It didn’t look like it touched anything on my mobo. After cleaning up as best as I could, I put the new waterblock on there and tried to give it a go. It turns on and begins cycling fluid, but monitors don’t post. Unplugging and replygging monitors into gpu refreshed the attempt to post but it doesn’t detect a signal sadly.

For further troubleshooting I pulled the gpu out of my stream PC and tried to get my pc to post with it and nothing. Then when I threw it back into my stream pc it would no longer post as well but it would turn on. The pcie power lights on the gpu would light up when I turn the pc on like it’s receiving power, but the fans for it don’t turn on as well. I guess these are separate issues but I’m running out of possible solutions or what the problem could be. Could I have messed up my mobo or psu? Is my whole pc cooked? I don’t smell anything burning and have tried reconnecting all psu cables and gpu and used multiple PCIE cables to try and power it.

game pc is a 10900k msi gaming x trio rtx 3090, msi z490 Meg godlike mobo,

merit: I’m beginning to think my mobo is done, I keep getting random dram errors one reboot, then vga, then cpu errors. After not touching anything and only rebooting. Is this likely the case? Also is it possible my other gpu is cooked?
 
Solution
Any time a liquid cooling system leaks anywhere on hardware, it needs to be dried as thoroughly as possible, including letting components air dry for many hours or overnight.

DO NOT PUT THEM INTO A WARM OVEN TO SPEED THIS PROCESS. This will very likely cause permanent damage, damage to PCB, burning or melting of components and plastic, etc.

The worst thing you can do is wipe it up and apply power right away. A strong likelihood exists that water is hidden in places where it is conductively shorting something...adding electricity is a great way to release that special blue smoke that only occurs once electrical components die and their ghost floats towards the heavens.

RAIDGoblin

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Jan 10, 2021
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Strip everything down and carefully inspect the components, cables and connector pins, the cooling liquid will have left residue on anything it got on to

if you don't find any evidence of liquid try a breadboard post with a different PSU, just in case the liquid got inside your PSU
 
Last edited:

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
I'm quite concerned by the order of events after there was liquid going around your PC. You don't just clean it up and then fire it up; you needed to disassemble and check every part and I wouldn't have even thought of turning it on for 48 hours at a minimum. If you were determined to test, I certainly would not have used the PSU that had a puddle on it with known working parts.
 
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RAIDGoblin

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Jan 10, 2021
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I'm quite concerned by the order of events after there was liquid going around your PC. You don't just clean it up and then fire it up; you needed to disassemble and check every part and I wouldn't have even thought of turning it on for 48 hours at a minimum. If you were determined to test, I certainly would not have used the PSU that had a puddle on it with known working parts.
agreed, last time I dealt with a laptop after a liquid spill I stripped everything down, washed all the residue off the motherboard with distilled water and left everything to dry is a warm place for a week before putting power back on, it worked but it doesn't always

since the OP has already put power to the PC all that can be done is try to determine the extent of the damage, if they are lucky it might only be the PSU or liquid trapped inside connectors causing the faults
 
Jun 18, 2020
42
2
35
agreed, last time I dealt with a laptop after a liquid spill I stripped everything down, washed all the residue off the motherboard with distilled water and left everything to dry is a warm place for a week before putting power back on, it worked but it doesn't always

since the OP has already put power to the PC all that can be done is try to determine the extent of the damage, if they are lucky it might only be the PSU or liquid trapped inside connectors causing the faults
Yea looking back it doesn’t seem like it was a good idea to do so, I thought it was okay since where the small puddle was didn’t look like it actually got inside the psu, just sitting on top, but on the cables and whatnot and overall situation of liquid on my pc should have stopped me. Ignorance on my part. Ill try and get this stripped down and see what I find.
 

RAIDGoblin

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Jan 10, 2021
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yep, a damaged mobo is highly unlikely to damage a PSU, but a damaged PSU could destroy a working mobo

so if (after inspecting the components - and assuming you find nothing) you do a breadboard post using the unused PSU you'll be a bit closer to knowing what components are/aren't damaged

don't forget to check there's no liquid collected (that could have tracked down the wires) in the power sockets on the mobo
 

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
Any time a liquid cooling system leaks anywhere on hardware, it needs to be dried as thoroughly as possible, including letting components air dry for many hours or overnight.

DO NOT PUT THEM INTO A WARM OVEN TO SPEED THIS PROCESS. This will very likely cause permanent damage, damage to PCB, burning or melting of components and plastic, etc.

The worst thing you can do is wipe it up and apply power right away. A strong likelihood exists that water is hidden in places where it is conductively shorting something...adding electricity is a great way to release that special blue smoke that only occurs once electrical components die and their ghost floats towards the heavens.
 
Solution